| Summary: | The purpose of this study was to clone and characterize <i>ddx4</i> and <i>dnd1</i> homologs in snakeskin gourami (<i>Trichopodus pectoralis</i>) and to determine their expression levels during larval development and in the gonads of males and females. Both cDNAs contained predicted regions that shared consensus motifs with the <i>ddx4</i> family in teleosts and the <i>dnd</i> family in vertebrates. Phylogenetic tree construction analysis confirmed that these two genes were clustered in the families of teleosts. Both <i>ddx4</i> and <i>dnd1</i> mRNAs were detectable only in the gonads, particularly in germ cells. These two genes were expressed during early larval development. The expression of <i>ddx4</i> was high during early larval development and decreased with increasing developmental age, whereas <i>dnd1</i> expression increased with developmental age. In adult fish, the expression levels of both genes were higher in the ovary than in the testis. Overall, these findings provide valuable molecular information on <i>ddx4</i> and <i>dnd,</i> and can be applied in future reproductive biological studies relating to sex dimorphism in snakeskin gourami.
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